Nothing Could Fall

Single By Choice

"You're saying that you brought a woman who you just met to the bullring because of a broken leg, essentially got tricked into helping operate on Proctor John by a pervy doctor, coerced into being his nurse, reunited with your family at the dam, walked out onto the bridge to be executed because your brother is shady, saved by said shady brother's suicidal heroics, only to be caught in the current, and nearly drown as you were dragged downstream?"

"Yep," Alicia states with a simple pop.

"Well, bloody hell, love," Elyza shakes her head. "You're tougher than you look."

"You aren't the first person to tell me that," Alicia sighs. She closes her eyes as she leans back into her beanbag chair and shifts until she is comfortable. Once content, she opens her eyes and looks across the fire at the woman currently gazing at her. "So are you going to tell me what you were doing at the dam, and why you were spying on Proctor John?"

"Who said anything about spying?" Elyza retorts, raising an eyebrow. She leans forward a little in challenge.

"You said you saw him talking to me," Alicia states nonchalantly. "You were spying."

Elyza glares at Alicia, waiting for her to break her eye contact. When she doesn't, Elyza huffs and falls back into her chair. "Same old story, love. Saw something I didn't like. Did something about it. Nearly got caught. Now they want me dead," she says as if her story was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Same old story?" Alicia questions.

"Look here, the Proctors are some seriously dodgy blokes. They control everything worth trading. Drugs, booze, weapons, food, water if they had gotten the dam, women... It's not right," Elyza rambles.

She throws her hands in the air in exasperation. "I mean, the world has already gone to hell in a handbag, and these assholes are exploiting that. Assholes are bad enough when you don't have to worry about the dead walking."

Elyza leans forward towards Alicia, her shoulders slightly slumped in defeat. "I found a caravan of their drugs and who knows what else, and I blew it to hell, yeah? Didn't make me too popular with Papa Proctor. I figure if I can get to him before he gets to me, I might have a shot. Hence, the spying."

"For someone who says they are a loner, you sure do care about people," Alicia smirks.

"100 percent."

Alicia doesn't respond. She waits to see if Elyza will take the bait and perhaps explain why she said she travels alone. When it becomes clear that she is not going to offer anything else, Alicia reaches for her little plate of food. She scoops a heaping portion of the instant mashed potatoes onto her spoon and brings it to her lips.

"Hold up there, love," Elyza grabs Alicia's wrist. 

Alicia scrunches her eyebrows in confusion as she sets her spoon back on her plate. Elyza digs through a bag before pulling out a small familiar white packet. She cracks open the single serving of pepper and sprinkles a little onto Alicia's potatoes.

"Almost forgot life lesson number three," Elyza says with a cheeky grin and wink.

Alicia lets a full smile form on her lips as she brings the now peppered bite of food to her mouth. "Mmm, now that is a lesson I can live by. I can't believe you actually have spices. It's been a while since I had a properly seasoned bite of food."

Elyza returns her smile and sprinkles pepper onto her plate. Exhausted from the day and content for the moment, they eat the rest of their meal in silence.

With their food gone and utensils cleaned and packed away, Elyza finally speaks. "Well, best get some rest, love. This place is solid, so don't you worry your gorgeous little head. We'll be safe for the night."